ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 51: Artisanal Mining, Coltan, Tantalum
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ENV100Y5 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Cellphones and many other high-tech products contain coltan, used for tantalum capacitors. Coltan (industrial name) = columbite + tantalite (two minerals) Since 2000, over 5 million died and millions fled. Soldiers control mining operations, fund guns and wars: conflict minerals . People doing artisanal mining in national parks killed wildlife, cleared rainforests, polluted rivers, caused uncontrolled erosion. Most coltan from drc is smuggled into china. Tantalum is mined in australia, brazil, canada, drc, china, ethiopia, and mozambique. Renewable (living resources renew population) and replenishable (refilling) resources. Critical flow resources (effectively nonrenewable because of mismanagement) In principle renewable, but it has become nonrenewable because the stock is depleting as we use it up, because we are using at a rate faster than rate of renewal or replenishment. Recyclable resources - most material resources are recyclable. Other (e. g. , human resources, indigenous ecological knowledge) Living resources replace or restock themselves by births and growth.
